9/24/21, 8:16 PM
Why Facebook is losing the war on hate speech in Myanmar
Inside Facebook’s Myanmar operation
Hatebook
A REUTERS SPECIAL REPORT
ETHNIC VIOLENCE: There have been repeated outbreaks of communal violence in Myanmar. In March, a United Nations investigator said Facebook had been used to incite hatred against the
Rohingya. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun
Why Facebook is losing the war on hate
speech in Myanmar
Reuters found more than 1,000 examples of posts, comments and
pornographic images attacking the Rohingya and other Muslims on
Facebook. A secretive operation set up by the social media giant to
combat the hate speech is failing to end the problem.
By STEVE STECKLOW
Filed Aug. 15, 2018, 3 p.m. GMT
YANGON, Myanmar – In April, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg told U.S. senators that the social media site was hiring
dozens more Burmese speakers to review hate speech posted in Myanmar. The situation was dire.
Some 700,000 members of the Rohingya community had recently fled the country amid a military crackdown and ethnic
violence. In March, a United Nations investigator said Facebook was used to incite violence and hatred against the Muslim
minority group. The platform, she said, had “turned into a beast.”
Four months after Zuckerberg’s pledge to act, here is a sampling of posts from Myanmar that were viewable this month on
Facebook:
One user posted a restaurant advertisement featuring Rohingya-style food. “We must fight them the way Hitler did the Jews,
damn kalars!” the person wrote, using a pejorative for the Rohingya. That post went up in December 2013.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-facebook-hate/
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